Texas Farmer Wins Entry of Default in Keystone Lawsuit

By Laurel Calkins -
Nov 6, 2013

A Texas farmer has won an entry of
default against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which failed
to respond to a federal lawsuit claiming it illegally granted
environmental permits to TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL
pipeline.

Michael Bishop, a farmer in Douglass, about 150 miles
northeast of Houston, said he will ask U.S. Magistrate Judge
Keith Giblin, in Lufkin, Texas, to invalidate the pipeline’s
permits and order the Army Corps to conduct public hearings that
it skipped before issuing water-crossing permits to Keystone,
which will transport Canadian tar-sands crude to refineries on
the Texas Gulf coast.

“Tomorrow I’m going to ask the judge for everything I had
in my original petition,” Bishop said in a phone interview.
“I’m going to ask him to revoke the permit and effectively shut
this pipeline down until they comply with the law.”

Bishop is one of the last Texas landowners still battling
Calgary-based TransCanada, Keystone’s parent, in court over the
company’s use of eminent domain laws to install the pipeline
against the property owners’ wishes. The company has said
construction on the southern leg of the pipeline is largely
complete in Texas and Oklahoma.

“Public hearings should’ve been held in accordance with
the law,” Bishop said in his original petition, filed in April.
He claims the agency “yielded to political pressure and
expedited the permit” in violation of federal environmental
regulations.

Keystone XL’s northern leg has yet to obtain permission
from U.S. President Barack Obama to cross the Canadian border,
and construction on that stage of the 2,151-mile (3,461-kilometer) line hasn’t begun.

Gretchen Krueger, a TransCanada spokeswoman, said the
company hasn’t had a chance to review the document and had no
immediate comment. The company isn’t a formal party to the
lawsuit.

The case is Bishop v. Bostick, 9:13-cv-00082, U.S. District
Court, Eastern District of Texas (Lufkin).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Laurel Calkins in Houston at laurel@calkins.us.com